Posts in Category: Pet Safety

Are you decking the halls this season? Most of us celebrate one or more of the winter holidays, which usually means partake in the delicious food, beautiful decorations, and friend and family gatherings that the season brings. Of course, we love to include our pets in this special time of year, they’re part of the family, after all!

But some of the things that come with holiday festivities can pose serious health and safety risks to our pets. Awareness, knowledge and attentiveness can go a long way to preventing a pet emergency. So before you get into the full hustle and bustle, let us help make the season merry and bright for your furry loved ones with our holiday pet safety tips.

Many of us anticipate the celebration of Halloween all year long. For children and adults alike, the costumes, treats, and parties surrounding Halloween can be great fun. But this holiday can be particularly spooky for our pets. Blue Valley Animal Hospital looks at some ways to make “Fright Night” both safe and fun for pets as well as the entire family.

Pet Safety on Halloween

Here are a few tips and tricks to think about when it comes to pet safety on Halloween.

Summertime, and the livin’ is easy… Or, so the old song goes. Summer fun is right around the corner, but along with the good times come things that can hurt your pet and spoil that easy- living feeling. Here’s what you need to know about summer pet safety, so you can both enjoy the good life from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and beyond!

Sun Seekers

Pets may love basking in the warm sunshine, but sun can cause damage to their skin just as it can to ours. Especially if you have a light colored, thin-skinned, or white dog or cat, take care to protect them from sunburn. You may consider a PABA-free zinc oxide pet sunscreen, and apply it to their ear tips, top of the nose, and their face. Make sure that you don’t get it in their eyes, of course.

Summer pet safety also means considering outside surfaces that your pet might encounter. The sun cooks concrete, metal, and asphalt, and sensitive paws can burn on hot surfaces. Avoid walking over asphalt and always give pets a way to get out of the sun by providing access to shade at all times. Driving with your dog in the bed of a truck is a bad idea.Continue…

Most of us consider our pets full-fledged members of our families, and it can be hard to be away from them when we have to leave town. Because it’s simply not possible to bring our pets everywhere we go (although that would be ideal), many pet owners turn to pet boarding services to provide a safe and secure “home away from home” for their pets.

As the weather begins to warm up, our thoughts turn to outdoor picnics, yard work, and trips to the dog park. But outdoor weather also brings disease-carrying mosquitoes. One disease of particular concern to pet owners is heartworm disease.

A type of roundworm, the heartworm will infect any size, breed, and shape of dog or cat. Left untreated, heartworm disease is fatal. Even with treatment, it can wreak havoc on your pet’s heart and lungs by the time it’s diagnosed. Let Blue Valley Animal Hospital tell you why heartworm prevention is your pet’s best friend.

Having your pet microchipped may seem like an unnecessary step because, after all, your pet is always supervised by you and they’d never stray, right? Unfortunately, the statistics show that over 10 million cats and dogs go missing each year, many of whom end up in shelters, rehomed, or worse, euthanized.

While we don’t wish to scare you, accidents do happen. Doors get left ajar, windows remain open, a screen pops out, or a dog who’s prone to dig gets under the fence. These are common scenarios that can happen to even the most vigilant of pet owners.

Even though spring hasn’t quite sprung yet in Kansas, we can be sure it’s on the way with many opportunities to get outside with your furriest buddy. You can envision it now: throwing the Frisbee to Fido, watching as he goes running to fetch it…but wait! There’s another dog in the park who suddenly growls at your pet, biting him unexpectedly on the neck. You run over to help and, seeing no blood, realize your pet doesn’t seem hurt. All’s well, right? Not so fast.

While there are many times when rushing your pet to the hospital may seem like a false alarm, there are definite times you should! The team at Blue Valley Animal Hospital can help you distinguish between an actual pet emergency and a “wait and see” scenario.